Rally demands dismissal of Gorno-Badakhshan admin over recent gunfight
DUSHANBE. May 22 (Interfax) - Several hundred people gathered outside the regional administration headquarters in Khorugh, administrative center of Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region, on Thursday, and demanded the dismissal of the entire administration.
"The incident of May 21 in Khorugh that resulted in human death was a deliberate, planned act of pressure by the security structures of the government of the country on the population of the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region with the aim at entrenching a syndrome of fear, submissiveness and blind obedience to force in the mentality of the Pamir people," local activists said in a statement made available to Interfax.
According to the Interior Ministry, a gunfight broke out between police and a group of alleged drug traffickers who had arrived at the local police station to liberate a man who had been arrested when he was allegedly transporting a 16-kilogram load of drugs.
Two attackers and two policemen were killed, and one attacker and three policemen were wounded, the ministry said.
The same day, the buildings of the police station, prosecutor's office and regional court were burned down by an enraged crowd.
Thursday's statement also contained a demand for "the dismissal of the entire staff of the regional administration and the security structures of the region and city, who had been aware of the upcoming special operation but had taken no precautions to protect the population from armed action in the center of the city of Khorugh."
There have been no reports about whether any of the demands were satisfied.
In July 2012, Khorugh was the site of an armed operation against militants that, according to official reports, killed 43 people, both militants and security personnel. The operation was commanded by Sherali Khairulloyev, the president's national security aide, who arrived in Khorugh on Thursday to investigate Wednesday's incident.
Thursday's statement demanded "finishing the investigation into [the 2012 operation], with guarantees of political and social rehabilitation of their participants, and releasing political convicts."
Gorno-Badakhshan, which lies in the Pamir mountains, is mainly populated by ethnic minorities - Shughnis, Rushanis, and Wakhis. They speak languages that belong to the Iranian family, as does Persian, which is Tajikistan's official language, but seriously differ from it.
During Tajikistan's civil war of 1992-1997, the region's population supported the United Tajik Opposition, and alliance that fought the Popular Front, which bought current President Emomali Rahmon to power.